Forbidden Orchard

-By Jesper Ejsing

Acrylics 16 x 12 inches on watercolor board

This is my landscape illustration for Magic´s Oath of the gatewatch Expeditions Lands.

The task giving by Sam Burley, my art director was pretty simple, but as always, I can easily make things more complicated. I was supposed to do a forest scene involving the tall structures of Zendikar called Hedrons. Also the mood should be gloomish. I tried different approaches but they all seemed to be too focused around the structure rather than the forest.

In the end I zoomed out at created a hanging forest-like scene, with hovering Hedrons. I came up with the idea that the forest, over the years had shaped itself around the hovering stone structures, as if the aura from the stones prevented growing too near them. Suddenly I knew where the illustration was going and I right away decided to let the glow from inside of the stones cast a light onto the nearby trunks, enhancing the small and little story.

I know perfectly well, that these thoughts not necessarily is something anyone would notice, if I hadn't told it, but it really doesn't, matter much. that I have them makes it interesting for me to paint something, and it creates a string for me to follow in the illustration.